The Bahamas: Merceline Dahl-Regis Receives PAHO Award

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis recently received the Pan American Health Organization Award for Administration for 2009. The PAHO Award Committee explained that Dr Dahl-Regis was awarded for her contribution to health care management and research and to medical education in primary health care. Made up of representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, and the United States, the Committee also cited her leadership in institutionalizing public health surveillance across all of The Bahamas and in evaluating and redefining the parameters for Caribbean Cooperation in Health. She has also been praised for positioning The Bahamas as a voice to be heard internationally on public health matters.

Dr. Dahl-Regis says the award was an honor for not her alone, but for those who work in public health, “particularly the women, and my country, The Bahamas.” Expressing her hopes for future of health care in the Caribbean and the world, she states, “I envisage a public health care system where it is second nature for practitioners to put their clients first, where practice is based on evidence rather than economics, where preventative health care has become the flagship of healthcare systems globally, providing equitable, culturally relevant care.” Labor and Social Development Minister Dion Foulkes describes Dr. Dahl-Regis as a “daughter of the soil” and spoke of her “tremendous investment in advancing the health and well-being of the people of The Bahamas, the Caribbean and the world.”